May Day 2016: Top ten quotes to commemorate the power of hard work and the arrival of spring

Maypole dancers at the May Day celebrations in the village of Elstow, Bedfordshire, in 1952Edward Malindine/Getty

May Day 2016 celebrates the spirit of workers around the world. Also popularly known as the International Workers' Day or the International Labour Day, 1 May coincides with the first day of spring and is considered as the northern hemisphere spring holiday.

Eighty countries around the world honour workers' rights and the labour movement by declaring a national holiday on 1 May and remember the workers demonstration in Chicago in 1886 for an eight-hour workday rule in which four demonstrators and seven policemen died.

To commemorate the day, IBTimes UK has compiled a top 10 list of powerful quotes that speak about the value and power of hard work and the charm of the arrival of spring.

1. You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own. —Michelle Obama

2. He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor. — Menander

3. The end of labor is to gain leisure. — Aristotle

4. A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them. — Elbert Hubbard

5. There is no substitute for hard work. —Thomas Edison

6. In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. — Karl Marx

7. With intellectual labor your hard work is forever, while with manual labor your hard work is temporary and soon forgotten. — Jarod Kintz

8. All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. —T.E. Lawrence

9. Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children. — Albert Einstein

10. The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax. — Albert Einstein

Top 5 Spring quotes

1. All furnished, all in arms; All plum'd like estridges that with the wind Bated like eagles having lately bathed; Glittering in golden coats like images; As full of spirit as the month of May; And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer; Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. — William Shakespeare

2. In the under-wood and the over-wood there is murmur and trill this day, For every bird is in lyric mood, And the wind will have its way. — Clinton Scollard

3. Another May new buds and flowers shall bring: Ah! why has happiness no second Spring? —Charlotte Smith

4. Among the changing months, May stands confest the sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed. — James Thomson

5. There's her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of December. — William Shakespeare